‘You know who put him on the needle and supplied him? It was that “Nat King” Cole.’
I said to Ronson: ‘Was it only Cole who did this injury to my friend? No one else you know of who was the person?’
‘Who else could it be, man? No one else.’
‘I thought maybe you could tell me who.’
Ronson was silent. ‘No man, not me,’ he said.
By now my brother Arthur had detected me, and over he came, as happy as a smiling hyena. ‘How’s Muriel?’ was how he greeted me.
‘She’s well.’
‘Ma’s told the Law you’ve taken her.’
‘She’s not under sixteen, is she?’
‘She’s a minor, brother, in need of care and protection. Ma wants her sent off to a home.’ Now he approached me closer. ‘Johnny,’ he said, ‘do something for me. Lend me loot.’
‘You spent all that which you took away from Mrs Macpherson?’
He smiled at me some more: I grew to hate that smile. ‘All gone,’ he said. ‘The gamble-house way, like you did. It sure goes so fast away in there.’
‘You get no more from this side of the family, Arthur.’
‘Listen, now,’ he said. ‘I see you’s selling weed. I’d like I go partners with you. I’d get you customers.’
‘Thanks, brother. I prefer I operate alone.’
‘You’re wasted, Johnny. No good to me at all.’
I saw the human being called Alfy Bongo standing just behind me. ‘What can I do for you, mister?’ I said nasty.
He answered me in a great whisper, with a lot of winks. ‘They tell me you’ve got some stuff.’
‘I don’t like your face,’ I said to him. ‘And if you speak to me again without you’re spoken to, they’ll have to send you into some hospital or other.’
This didn’t seem to be my lucky day for gay society, because the next person who accosted me was no one less but a well-known idiot from back home called Ibrahim Tondapo, a thoroughly gilded youth who, just because his dad owns two small cinemas that regularly catch on fire and burn up portions of the audience, allowed himself in Lagos great airs of class distinction, earning hatred and laughter everywhere around. He looked at me up and down and shook his body in his expensive suit as if he was shivering cold water off it. So ‘Hullo, chieftain,’ I said to him. ‘How is each one of your six mothers?’ (this being a reference to his not knowing really who his mother was, because his dad is volatile, and he quite unlike any of his brothers.)
At which this foolish man spat on the floor.
I ought not to have said what I did, of course, but nor ought he to spit – is an unhealthy habit. So I slapped him on his face, and a fight began, and I was seized on by eight people and thrown out through the doors. Stupid behaviour, with my pockets stuffed with weed, but poverty and misery cause you to act desperately, as all know.
‘You and I,’ I shouted back at Tondapo through the door, ‘will meet each other shortly once again.’
Out in the street, the boys were charging in the light of day, a habit dangerous in this city, where now the notable sweet smell of this strong stuff is well known to curious nostrils. So I crossed the road to where some builders were erecting a new construction, and among them I was surprised to see a tall West Indian toiling, one that I’d known in gamble-houses in my prosperous days. We gazed at each other quite politely, and he came over to say his word to me.
‘Just look at me,’ he said. ‘A member of the labouring classes.’
‘If a brick falls on your head, man, you’ll certainly go straight up to heaven for this honest labour.’
‘Yes, man, that’s authentic. But wouldn’t I much rather be sitting there in the Sphere consuming Stingo beer or something of that nature.’
‘You’re Mr Tamberlaine,’ I said to him. ‘I see you round some time ago, you may remember. Introducing people one to the other was your speciality.’
‘Yes, that’s exactly so. Pimping about the city, as you might call it, if you wanted to.’ And he gave me his harmonious smile.
‘And that’s all over now, that kind of business?’
‘Oh, no. I’m still in the market in the evenings, but find it prudent, don’t you see, to have some part-time occupation in the days to justify my movements and existence if there’s any police enquiries.’
‘Wise, man. You’s real educated.’
‘There’s something,’ he said, ‘as might interest you